Dear Family,
It's hard to believe that the weeks keep getting better and better. Certainly the holiday season has a lot to do with it as the Spirit of Christmas seems to permeate everything here in Austria just as it does around the rest of the Christian world. Many of you will remember our traditional Advents calendar that we always hang on the pantry door in the kitchen every December. The kids always like to place a little figure on the tree every day in December from the 1st through the 24th and we've been doing that for years ever since being trained in Germany many years ago. Well it's very special here for everyone and so we've purchased TWO Advent's calendars with one very traditional kind here hiding a yummy piece of chocolate underneath the date and so far we've been able to enjoy 7 pieces of yummy candy during the past week. Our other Advent's calendar is just a fun one opening a little cover to reveal something special underneath. The overlying picture is of a street scene in Dickens' England with a young boy underneath number one right in front of a shop labelled Dicken's Books. When you fold back the cover he's carrying a large pumpkin, two showing a toy shop window which adds a teddy bear hanging in the window when you pull it back. three grows a yummy multi-layered cake from three to six layers, four has a squirrel eating out of a girl's hand that was empty before pulling the card back, etc. It's lots of fun and we'll try and save the calendars to use again next year when we'll be home prior to the first of advent if we can talk Sister Parker out of a big long touring trip hauling five big pieces of luggage along with us!
The big events of the week were our last district meeting with Elder Pugmire who returns to Utah and should have arrived by last Friday. He went out in style with a baptism just five days before he left and asked if he could borrow Elder Parker's white tie! So here it is, perhaps as close as it will get to a baptism this mission but who knows.
The young man being baptized is from Pakistan and has been in our Institute class for the past several weeks. He asked if he could bear his testimony after the closing song of the service and just before the closing prayer and it was very touching to feel the Spirit as he told us of his love for the Savior.
On Thursday we became a trio as one of the sweet sisters left to serve in Stuttgart and we were her former companions protectors. Sister Bushman left around 9 AM and her replacement, Sister Anjaloudis didn't come in until about 7 PM. They'll be an interesting pair as the new senior comes from Australia and our continuing junior comes from Saudi Arabia (though American by ancestry.) But she's lived there for well over a decade and is used to only being able to drive while on the American compound as women aren't allowed to drive elsewhere in the country.
We had three other new elders come into Vienna with the transfer and most came by the center on Friday night which turned out to be wonderful as we had 7 of our Iranian family appear. This time they came in time for waffles, none of them knowing what waffles were beforehand but it was really a very sociable evening. We just naturally divided up into various groups with missionaries placing themselves amongst each group and they're finally starting to ask questions about what makes the church different from the other churches around. The young adults had dedicated the night to making cookies and so everyone pitched in. One of the groups was decorating with little sparkles and one of the Iranian men became very philosophical with his decorations symbolizing an evil influence with chocolate sprinkles being overcome by the radiant sunshine of the white, yellow, green and red sprinkles. It was a lot more complicated than that but fit into their Zoroastrian thinking about life. He was also quite an accomplished piano player and was impressed with a newly returned missionary who was present and has been called to the Stake Young Adult Council who sat down and tickled the ivories for a few minutes. and I think helped further establish the fact that these Mormons are a cultured group. They finally asked for pictures and so we took some too.
Saturday we finally had a chance to have a real P day and got out to two or three more Christmas markets around town. Dad finally broke down and let Mom get a few neat souvenirs of a Christmas in Vienna which will grace the decorations in the future. We also finished mailing off a few Christmas packages which will hopefully arrive before the great day. Of the 29 different markets around town, each one with it's own special flavor, we've actually been able to visit about 10 of them, many for just a quick walk through. Later we were able to get to two different ward celebrations. Saturday is St. Nicholas Day and we saw St. Nicholas both at Schoenbrunn, the fancy castle we have visited with everyone who has come as well as visiting the Primary at the Vienna 5th Ward.
Not exactly a Santa Claus image but around here it's the Christ child who brings the gifts on Christmas Eve.
We then moved to the 2nd Ward at the Stake Center where the Young Adults had practiced a cute dance number for part of the entertainment.
Unfortunately the light was poor and the picture is fuzzy but there was a little more of a Santa Claus guy present.
Today we got off early to travel to the First Ward for Fast and Testimony meeting. Our baptizee from last week was confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and I felt like we were back in our young adult ward in Utah as the lines to bear testimony were always four to five people long. With time expiring we still had three people get up at the end of the meeting to bear testimony as they just couldn't stay in their seats. We'd already heard from a 90 year old and two 80 year olds, one of whom was helped up to the podium by the bishop's 1st counselor and another young man waiting to bear his testimony. One of the late testifiers looked very familiar and it turned out she was the sister of our stake president, Howard Bangerter and former General President of the Relief Society, Julie Beck! She brought up as a translator a young medical student we know well who did a great job of getting it right in German.
We had a nice visit after the meeting and they had lots of family connections which brought them to that particular ward as they're touring Europe. The medical student mentioned she is now on a gynecology rotation and has lots of ethical questions and we're going to meet sometime this week to share some of the wisdom gained in 40 years of practice. The spirit was very strong and we can't remember a better meeting anywhere at any time. Also visiting was a just released sister who had served in Vienna and was touring with her family. She left Vienna in April just prior to our arrival in May so we hadn't known her but her parents had both served missions in Germany, one in Hamburg and the other in Frankfurt. They met while teaching at the MTC, That sounds a little familiar, right Matt and Heidi?
So, Happy Second Advent everyone and we'll see how the next week goes.
Love, Mom and Dad,
Grammy and Grampa,
Elder and Sister Parker
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